Blueberries are relatively easy to look after. Keep the compost or soil moist, but not soaking wet. Don’t allow it to dry out between waterings. Water plants with rainwater, not tap water, unless you have no alternative in a drought. Tap water will raise the pH level and blueberries like acidic conditions.
The best of the brassicas and probably our top ranked plant of all. Incredibly prolific, just when you need it - in winter - but with brilliant leaves in summer and autumn too. However you must sow in March, plant in May and into very well prepared ground for a top crop!
Plant 6-8" apart in 8" rows, with the tips 3cm below the soil surface
August planting for the polytunnel
Kale 'Scarlet' produces highly decorative, dark green, red veined leaves which show more colour as colder weather approaches. This superb curly Kale makes a delicious 'salad leaf' when young, or can be grown to maturity for a supply of winter greens at a time when fresh vegetable are scarce in the garden. Mature plants show excellent winter hardiness, standing well in the harshest weather for a long season of harvest. Height: 90cm (35"). Spread: 60cm (24").
An amazing winter and spring green. Plant every 4-6 inches as a green manure and just keep harvesting the new shoots, try to leave two shoot to grow on. New shoots will spring up from the base to be harvested a few weeks later. Grows well at the time when all of the other spinach alternatives are slowing down, stopped or dead.
A lovely looking and prolific outdoor tomato, I like to show it off, growing in the garden
Grown in galvanised bins, coming to the end of their life now. These are a superb cherry, I like them as soon as they start to turn red, which is before the birds strip the tree.
Allotment cherries, not old enough to fruit heavily yet
We grow Sweetheart for our first early succession in the polytunnel hanging baskets and as our second early variety outside. It's a great fruit, very productive and tasty. It's generally considered to be an outstanding early season variety, although it continues to fruit into July.
Late planting is for the polytunnel
Consistently rated the best summer salad leaf by our family. Cruncy, sweet, tasty and healthy. Not as prolific as other lettuces but somehow that doesn't seem to matter. Doesn't keep quite as well as lettuce though and needs to be planted after tha last frost
Raspberries are just incredible picked straight off the canes, so much better than anything in the shops and by perhaps the biggest margin of any fruit and veg. We grow a mix of autumn and summer fruiting, summer fruiting are my favourites. We don't know what varieties we grow unfortunately
Grown in galvanised bins, for me the best tasting cherry, but mine hasn't fruited yet!
A great general purpose carrot, but I've now switched over to carrots optimised for particular seasons
North Holland Blood Red is actually a main-crop bulbing onion, but it makes a good salad onion if harvested young, not quite as good is Lila though. Where it excels is in filling the gap in salad onion availability in August and September. Sown in April at high density we get hundreds of small bulbs. Remove the outer layer of skin (which tastes quite strong) and the inner bulb makes for an exceptionally sweet salad onion.
Very cheap to buy and fairly good, but I prefer Guardsman over winter and alternatives over summer
This year I grew Meteor as my first early peas. The Meteor were ready a few weeks before the others, but didn't compete for taste, my favourite were the Sugarsnaps, but the Oregon Sugarpod were a close second.
Reliable chard, provides some leaves all year round when grown under cover in winter, not as tender as perpetual spinach.
Chard 'Bright Lights' has brilliant coloured leaves, amazing in the garden and the salad bowl. You'll need only one or two sowings for growing all year, as this stunning variety is very slow to bolt. A must for the ornamental veg garden.
Hardier, even more vigorous and less likely to bolt than the coloured stem chards, but not as attractive.
This is my favourite spinach for autumn, winter and early spring! We grow it in coldframes where it is much more productive than outside. It's a really hardy spinach which seed supplier will tell you shrugs off frost, gales and even snow to keep you picking right through the coldest months of the year. In my experience it stays alive in these conditions, but the harvest will be tiny, compared to growing under cover. The large, elegantly pointed leaves have a strong, rich flavour that's perfec
Best apples I've ever tasted. On Dave's plot, we have permission to take cuttings for grafting. Amazing taste, keeps brilliantly and no grubs!!
One of my all time favourite lettuces. Excellent for most of the year, except late autumn and mid-winter, when it's prone to mildew and growth stalls. Excellent as a cut and come again lettuce and slightly better than Cantarix which doesn't stay as compact in summer. Resistant to root aphid, which can be a problem in late summer.
Useful grown outside to provide a boost to pickings in January an February when other lettuces are stalled. However it's slow growing, small and fiddly to pick.
Grown in galvanised buckets, grows extremely well, good yield. Reasonable eating, but we also dehydrate a lot of them. Also one on Debbie's plot
On Debbie's plot and on a friends plot, we barter for access. Best eating pear, so crisp and sweet!
Rather different from most kales as it is less curly and more cabbage-leaved. Pentland also has a more cabbage like flavour too. The fringed leaves are delicious steamed with butter or shredded and deep fried like seaweed. Pick the main leaves in autumn and taste side-shoots later on
A mid-late maturing variety, Red Baron onions produce firm, globe-shaped bulbs with a beautiful, blood-red skin and red-rimmed flesh inside. It has a stronger flavour than most varieties, and works well in just about any dish that relies on onion as a key part of the flavour. When planted early, the bulbs can come out quite large. Their strong skins lend towards their excellent keeping abilities, and stored properly they should last you until it’s time to harvest your next crop.
This popular, compact curly Kale is ideal for growing in windswept gardens or on poor soils. Kale 'Dwarf Green Curled' produces attractive, dark, tightly frilled leaves of excellent quality. Like all Kale this variety is exceptionally hardy, standing well in the harshest of weather. Height: 60cm (24"). Spread: 45cm (18").
These are my favourite tomato for eating fresh off the plant, although they do tend to split if stored in my salad boxes. They are however less likely to split than the very similar Sungold.
This is my favourite second early tomato and my favourite for growing in tubs for a harvest in summer. Grow one plant per 35cm (14") hanging basket or 30L tub. Prefect for growing outdoors.
A very tasty tomato for eating fresh in salads or straight off the plant. It does tend to split. I'm told it continues to ripen into winter in a frost free greenhouse, so I will be trying that this year! I normally prefer Honeycomb, because it is slightly less prone to splitting.
This is my overall favourite but I've only been able to source it grafted and I've given up on buying grated plants now.
A distinctly different kind of Asian green, tatsoi is a small, spoon-shaped green that delivers a unique flavor experience. A stocky plant similar to bok choy, tatsoi is native to China where it is believed to have been cultivated since 500 AD. This unique, low-growing green made its way to Japan during the early Showa period (1312-1317) where the signature mellow, almost creamy, flavor was refined. A dependable source of vitamins in cool winter months, the dark, green leaves of this squat plant
On my plot in the perennial border, just getting established, tastes ok so far, but not the best
We plant a lot of green garlic, use it in place of garlic or spring onions. I like it cooked as a sweet leek
Pear tree on my plot. Good eating, but a very heavy cropper too, so we dehydrate a lot and use in smoothies etc
Allotment plum tree in my flower border, not fruited yet
Allotment plum tree, my favorite plum, taste of my youth!
A really excellent salad onion for late, autumn, winter and spring. Stands nice and tall, much better than White Lisbon, which tends to be a little floppy.
A specialized variety with a sweet taste , especially when sown in mid/late October for a spring harvest from containers, which stay in a polytunnel until April and then move outside. It's a fairly fast grower too, so it works well for a late sowing
Very slow growing, so ideal for sowing in May, for a winter harvest. We leave this exceptionally frost tolerant carrot in the ground into the winter and lift as required. Easy to grow variety (can be cropped late and stored, or overwintered if soil is well drained and free of slugs). It tastes much better after a frost, which usually means mid-November onwards for us.
We like Mokum in late winter or early spring for a spring/summer harvest or as a late season carrot, it can be sown in July/August under cover in containers and saved (in the compost it grows in) for harvest in winter as crisp salad carrots.
The most reliable winter lettuce and the best all round lettuce, although it's not the best we grow in mid-summer. It's a beautiful lettuce with varying shades of red, bronze, light and dark green. The flavour is excellent so it should not come as a surprise that this is an heirloom (Rouge de Grenoble). It is cold tolerant but seems to still do well in the early and late summer. It can also be treated as a cut-&-come-again.
My favourite summer lettuce with excellent crispy green leaves with a red tinge and great taste. Good bolt resistance. Suitable for sowing from February through August for harvest May to October. I like this so much that I tried it for a winter harvest, but it didn't do well.
Not a true spinach, but a winter hardy member of the beet family, that includes Chard. The stems and leaves are very tender, more so than Chard. Keeps going all winter under cover, provided you only harvest a few leaves per plant. Less likely to bolt than true chard.
On keiths plot, now Rob's plot, I barter for access. brilliant apple, not quite as good as the one on Dave's plot but still excellent. Keeps very well, very crisp and sweet, few grubs. I've grafted this and waiting to try
Plant 12" on 8" rows with the tip 2-3” below the soil surface
Best grown in mid-spring for an early summer harvest, Moon Red is a little gem type lettuce with deep red outer leaves and a green heart. Growth wise it is slightly larger than Little Gem, but still compact with an upright habit. The plants show good disease resistance.
An invaluable perennial tree kale, that actually has a quite cabbagy tasting leaf, harvestable all year round, but especially in winter and spring
In the flower border on my plot. Very reliable pear, we use these for dehydrating
A medium to late variety that normally grows to between 60-80cm tall. The medium green leaves are blistered and very curly. Narrower frame than some varieties. Highly resistant to frost.
Very useful and healthy winter lettuce, grows outside even in fairly harsh winters
One of the very best winter lettuces we grow, but in early autumn the outer leaves grow a bit flat to the ground and lack texture. We often remove and compost them. By late autumn the quality picks up and from then on it's excellent, much better than all of the varieties with winter in their name! Great though it is in winter and early spring it's rubbish for the rest of the year.
Mid sized full open head. Tender, crunchy upright leaves with ruffled edges. Ideal for growing either as a cut-and-come-again or as a head of lettuce
Our favourite of the winter squashes, although it can grow rather large, it tastes great and keeps exceptionally well
This is our favourite variety, it performs well in every succession.
An excellent late variety, that's perfect for the hungry gap!
New Ace F1 is very productive and early with a slightly spreading habit. It produces dark green fruits turning bright red as they mature, but can be picked at any time. As easy to grow as tomatoes and requiring much of the same treatment. Peppers can be grown outside, so long as they are in a sheltered sunny area, but best results are usually obtained when they are grown in a polytunnel or a glasshouse
Little Gem is the perfect Cos Lettuce - it's quick to mature, dwarf and compact, producing crisp, sweet, medium-sized hearts. Resistant to root aphid. Suited to sowing March-July outdoors, and also good under cover. It's no good for continuous cropping though, so it's best to sow a few every week. In hot summers the hearts can rot.
An excellent open pollinated red variety producing a high yield of red bulbs, with crimson skin and crisp white flesh with crimson circles. Very good storage performance. Bulbs typically 130 grams in weight. Maincrop maturity.
My favourite early French bean, seems more resistant to cold weather than others, but you always take a risk growing French beans before the last frost date! Early sowings need to go under a low tunnel, probably with extra fleece!
Very similar to Moon Red it's a good late spring/early summer lettuce that's best when left to heart up. At it's best it's lovely and crunchy and beautiful to look at.
Slightly spicy, healthy and prolific. Great in winter, even outside. Will run to seed fairly quickly in summer, but it's a fast grower
Can be used in salads and cooked too, nowhere near as prolific as the other spinach alternatives, but it looks nice provided the slugs and flea beetle don't get it - which they probably will!
Bright Future is a modern, very high quality eating variety. An excellent flavour with a good balance of sweetness and acidity. Attractive red-orange fruit with subtle stripes and a crisp texture. Beautiful pure white flowers in the spring. A late season variety which is eaten after Christmas and stores very well into the New Year. It's a great variety for organic gardeners as its bred to be highly disease resistant. Happiest when its planted in a sunny sheltered spot! Developed to celebrate 5
On Debbie's plot, acceptable eating apple
A hardy onion grow outside or under cover. This outstanding performer has a mild and crisp flavour.
Sow 3 to a cell and plant out in October. This outstanding performer has a mild and crisp flavour.
A brilliant sweet beet that many people enjoy, even if they don't like red beetroots. Doesn't grow as well in early spring as red varieties, so hold back for a month! Leaves are exceptional quality.
Cheap as chips to buy and very productive for cooking tomatoes, but slightly slow to ripen, so best grown under cover.
Actually a bulbing onion, but sown in February/March it gives the most beautiful sweet and colourful salad onions in late spring. It then starts to bulb up, but does tend to go to seed from this early sowing, so don't rely on it for a main-crop bulbing onion harvest. Also works sown in late August for a spring harvest
Tubers are typically planted whole. You can cut tubers for more plants, much as you would seed potatoes. Make sure each piece has at least two eyes. It is best if the seed pieces are at least 1/2 ounce (14 g). If you cut tubers, let them heal for a few days in a humid environment before planting.
We grow our climbing beans earlier and a little later than others. Our early crop goes into the polytunnel, wrapped in fleece, the outdoor ones go out later, when all rusk of frost has definitely passed. In a polytunnel - once it's warm enough beans go from planting to harvesting in a month, so no need to plant them too early!
One of my favourite early peas. Picked as a mangetout it's brilliant, but I also like it with small peas too, still eaten whole. Grown early there's no risk of pea moth spoiling the experience.
Honeyberries are fruit of forms of the honeysuckle Lonicera caerulea, also known as blue honeysuckle or edible honeysuckle. The fruits are very similar to blueberries in taste and looks, and can be eaten raw or used in jams and jellies. Like blueberries they are high in antioxidants and vitamin C and make an interesting addition to your fruit collection
Earlier and later than Red Drumhead, but otherwise the same notes apply.
We really like red cabbages and while there are lots of varieties, Red Drum head is cheap and does well. We have red cabbage from late June through until March. Our early crop is sown in mid-September and kept in pots until winter, when it is gradually planted out when milder weather windows - about a week long - open up. In December we lift plants and their roots and transplant into old potato tubs and move into the greenhouse/polytunnel, where they hold in good condition until spring, altho
A superb purple cauliflower, which works very well for a summer harvest from a winter or spring sowing, but it does much better kept frost free when seedlings are young. I've been experimenting with a late September sowing and planting in winter in a low tunnel, for a May harvest, it comes 2-3 weeks later than Orkney, but heads are much bigger, so it works well in succession.
Swift are our standard early potato now, being fast to grow, compact and very reliable.
These have a good, long shape with yellow flesh and skin. They are one of the very best all-rounder potatoes and ideal if you want to grow just one variety.
I now only recommend Fillbasket for growing over winter for a harvest of leaves in spring and Brussels sprouts in summer. Fillbasket seems particularly resistant to going to seed when grown this way.
Club root resistant and The hardiest of all the cabbage family. Familiar for their crinkled and blistered leaves, they will withstand the hardest of our winters to give welcome green stuff to your dinners when fresh produce is in short supply. We start ours late, for a harvest after the red cabbages are finishing and just before we pick loose leaf spring cabbage, or loose leaf Preludium savoy
Very reliable over winter. We prefer to sow ours in late October or November so that they over-winter as small plants that will withstand the winter weather. They will catch up with earlier sown beans in spring and probably be healthier
Although our favourite potato is Charlotte, we still grow a few Sarpo Mira as an insurance policy against blight. We think it's an excellent general purpose potato, with a good mix of sizes.
An aromatic, perennial with stems and leaves flushed with purple. It produces tiny, pale purple flowers in late summer
Grown like a regular cucumber, this exotic variety produces masses of bite-size fruits that are fun, refreshing and almost citrusy. Great for children's pack lunches.
An outstanding garden variety with excellent winter hardiness and good resistance to rust. Leek 'Porbella' produces good yields of sturdy, pure white, thick stems with dark green leaves. The mature leeks are ready for harvesting from October to February.
Small bush variety for growing in containers, I'm trialling this for the polytunnel both early and late
This is a late maturing celery, but we find it also works great when grown as a first early crop
A good main crop variety
Back garden cherry, really prolific and sweet
A good onion for a mid Autumn harvest, but not the best taste/texture so we don't grow for the rest of the year. Summer Island is better and I'm trying Entita this year as an alternative
A uniform and attractive brown-skinned shallot which produces good, fleshy bulbs with a delicious flavour- milder than onions and a little sweeter. Lovely to saute or light fry and add to sauces.
If you can't wait for leeks in Autumn, you need a fast growing bolting resistant variety, something like Hilari or Lincoln. I start these early in the polytunnel for a harvest just as the Elephant garlic (which works great as a leek) is finishing
I've not grown Crispus myself but I include it in my list of favourites because it's resistant to club root and so I might well be forced to use it soon
Very good main crop, multiple cobs per plant
All female, but requires pollination. The 'lunch box' cucumber! Aptly named, this mini 'cuc' is one of the sweetest we have ever found on our trials. Harvest this little beauty from 7.5cm (3") up to 15cm (6") in length. Very prolific and has resistance to powdery mildew disease. Greenhouse/outdoor cucumber. Ideal for beds and borders, patio pots and containers, greenhouse. Prefers full sun
Early April for the polytunnel
We don't usually grow pea shoots in the ground because they take up too much space, we do however sometimes have a tray of them on the kitchen windowsill in late autumn and winter, for that lovely pea taste. For the rest of the year we will just pick a few shoots off our pea plants, or eat beans or leaves from other plants. There's no reason not to grow them all year round though if you want!
Red Flowered Because the seeds develop only slowly in the beans, this delicious, stringless variety can be picked over a long period with no loss of quality or texture. Excellent for both the kitchen and the show bench, Lady Di also has good heat tolerance.
The Anaheim pepper is a mild, medium-sized chili pepper that grows to 6-10 inches in length. It is often used for cooking and recipes when green, though it can be used when red when it is hotter.
This large sweet pepper grows up to 9 inches (20 cm) long and 2 inches (4 cm) wide. The tapered fruit turns a golden yellow when ripe. The flesh is thick, which combined with the size of the peppers makes them perfect for stuffing. A mid- to late-season producer, Ringo starts late but produces well into the autumn, often well after other varieties have stopped.
An improved strain of the popular 'Detroit'. Beetroot 'Detroit 2 Crimson Globe' produces globe-shaped roots with rich maroon colouring and a good flavour. Ideal for successional sowing to produce high yields
This white salad turnip sets the standard for flavor. The smooth flat-round, white roots mature early, just after radishes, and are best harvested young up to 2" diameter. Eaten raw, the flavor is sweet and fruity, and the texture is crisp and tender. The dark green, hairless tops are useful raw or lightly cooked with the roots. Hakurei stays smooth as it sizes.
Yacon is a large plant from South America, distantly related to sunflowers, and it has huge, attractive fuzzy green leaves. It has very pretty little yellow flowers at the top of each stalk.
This lettuce is resistant to lettuce root aphid, which makes it a candidate for growing in the kitchen garden in summer! It has a really lovely thick, but soft and crisp leaf
Lovely addition to salads and stirfry and even soups in autumn and winter, will run to seed fairly quickly in spring and summer
Despite it's claims as a summer spinach, we find that it still bolts in hot and dry weather, so a shady spot is essential in summer!
A particularly attractive and tasty variety, which we like to grow as an ornamental edible in our potager garden beds
Large crispy bulbs with a mild flavour, quick growing variety
Aubergine Black Beauty is a pear shaped, open pollinated variety, producing deep purple fruits. Fruit size is 15 x 12cm. A popular amateur variety, but not as reliable as the F1 varieties available.
An excellent ice box watermelon, with fine, crispy flesh and sweet flavour. Externally the melon is green with pale white stripes. Fruit is small to medium sized; deep globe shape. Weight typically 2.5-3.5Kg.
This is now my favourite Brussel sprout. The quality and density on the stem is excellent and they hold well into March, with no loss of quality.
Very hardy and the perfect variety for planting out in September. It will reliably provide tasty and delicious hearts during winter when grown under cover. It is however exceptionally slow to get started, so sow 2-3 weeks earlier than usual. We used it this year for hearts in January/February and it worked great, making a big difference to the volume we were able to harvest at this time of year
The best of the crinkly leaved lettuces, we've growing it successfully from spring to autumn and in our trials it did very well until December in the polytunnel. It has a lovely fresh taste and a crisp texture and hardly any issues with slugs
Later maturing variety. Approximately 2 weeks later than Pablo, Beetroot Bettollo F.1 Hybrid can be sown from Mid-April for main and late production. Bettollo produces high quality, uniform roots.
Pablo is a early variety, it is a great choice for baby beetroot or it can be left to mature for maincrop larger beets. With a small taproot and no coarse rings when cut, it shows good resistance against bolting and can stand for a long period without becoming 'woody' and stores very well.
Sweet and small peppers, ideal for kids to eat fresh
The best baking potato we've grown so far, stores well in containers, but not as well as Charlotte and Sarpo Mira
A late winter, early spring variety, that crops over a short period, so ideally two successions are best
One of my favourites, needs lots of sun though to ripen in our climate
Resistance to both downy and powdery mildew. I've grown them once and they did well, lasting well into autumn and they made a good shelling pea, sweet enough for cooking and fairly good for eating raw. The only issue for me was that I've been eating fresh peas since April so by October I'm really ready for a change, so extending the season doesn't have too much value. We also don't freeze peas because generally we don't really like frozen food. I will probably grow them for the grandkids thou
Good eating apple, beloved by supermarkets, on Steve's plot
On Debbie's plot, lovely eating apple, not great keeper
the earliest cropping summer cauli, we're delighted to have found an excellent replacement! Orkney F1 is a high quality, reliable variety which produces dense heads of large white curds from as early as May
These are my favourite tomato for eating fresh off the plant, although they do tend to split if stored in my salad boxes. They are however less likely to split than the very similar Sungold.
This distinctive variety produces attractive, creamy-yellow cylindrical fruits with an unusual pale green tip that are certainly easy to spot! The strong, bushy plants of Courgette 'Zephyr' produce fruits with a firm texture and a delicious nutty flavour if harvested regularly when no more than 15cm (6") long
Switching to Entita from summer island, because I can get these from Moles. They are reportedly a good variety for for sowing in late spring and summer.
A wonderful everbearing variety, tastes great when grown early and it responds well to forcing too, for a super-early succession.
Although thought of as a cooking tomato, I like this blight resistant variety eaten fresh off the plant too. It ripens very well in the UK and it's one of my top varieties
A commercial lettuce from JustSeed.com bred by Rijk Zwaan and usually only available in europe. I'm hoping it will make a good summer lettuce. Will be harvested as a full heads, often in place of flowers!
A commercial salanova lettuce from JustSeed.com bred by Rijk Zwaan and usually only available in europe. I'm hoping it will make a good summer lettuce. Will be harvested as a full heads, often in place of flowers!
A commercial lettuce from JustSeed.com bred by Rijk Zwaan and usually only available in europe. I'm hoping it will make a good summer lettuce. Will be harvested as a full heads, often in place of flowers!
A commercial lettuce from JustSeed.com bred by Rijk Zwaan and usually only available in europe. I'm hoping it will make a good summer lettuce. Will be harvested as a full heads, often in place of flowers!
A commercial lettuce from JustSeed.com bred by Rijk Zwaan and usually only available in europe. I'm hoping it will make a good summer lettuce. Will be harvested as a full heads, often in place of flowers!
A commercial salanova lettuce from JustSeed.com bred by Rijk Zwaan and usually only available in europe. Emocion is a Dark-green Batavia for outdoor production. Compact green leaf. Will be harvested as a full heads, often in place of flowers!
A commercial lettuce from JustSeed.com bred by Rijk Zwaan and usually only available in europe. I'm hoping it will make a good summer lettuce. Will be harvested as a full heads, often in place of flowers!
I'm growing for baby leaves to go in salads, where it has a mild spinach like taste.
This is my favourite first early tomato and my favourite for growing in tubs for a harvest in late spring and early summer. Grow one plant per 35cm (14") hanging basket or 30L tub. Prefect for growing early under glass.
Liberty is a late fruiting blueberry producing delicious sky-blue berries with an outstanding flavour. An upright habit and consistent high yields. Great for fresh eating and good for freezing. Blueberry Growing Tips: Happier planted in full sun or partial shade.
Brigitta produces good yields of medium-large size berries with a good flavour and medium sweetness. Often described as being late fruiting, but we find that the fruit usually ripens towards the end of July and can be picked until mid August. It's a vigorous variety, growing to 1.5m (5ft), but is also compact in its habit, so is a good choice where space is limited.
hardy evergreen shrub which produces fragrant white flowers and edible red berries. Has small dense glossy green foliage and masses of scented white-cream flowers in summer. The flowers are followed, in autumn, by bright red edible berries which taste like a spicy strawberry. Plant in full sun or semi shade in a sheltered position, will grow to a height of approx 5ft tall.
One of the best red-skinned varieties, it produces bumper crops of crisp, white fleshed bulbs with a really good flavour for cooking, salads or pickling. Good storage variety.
Suitable for both baby leaf and whole head. Mature plants have a semi upright habit and exhibit a rosette of rounded, savoyed, purple green leaves on slender, light green stalks. It can be harvested anytime during growth, young leaves are especially delicious with a mild mustard flavour and good crunchy texture.
Honeydew melon is just like the cucumber in that it is a real heat lover. Sow indoors or in a greenhouse from mid-April. You can also use a mini greenhouse, using some fairly large turf pots filled with good potting compost, or just in a simple potting tray. A combination of seedlings, plugs and a mini greenhouse makes it very easy. Best is, if you can somehow heat your mini greenhouse from below.
Melon Cantaloupe Di Charentais. An Heirloom French variety, suited to the cooler UK climate producing round, 2lb medium-sized fruit with slight ridges and a silvery grey skin with a mouthwatering sweet yellowish orange flesh with an intense aroma. This variety is thin skinned and damages easily in transit, so it is not a variety found in stores. It is known as a “true” cantaloupe, as the varieties stocked in shops are usually musk melons.
Vigorous plants producing fragrant, sweet, tasty fruits with orange flesh that can grow up to 700g (1.5lb).
I'm trying this as an alternative to Red Kitten like all spinach it's quick and easy to grow, appealing red tinted leaves, can be picked as soft and tender baby leaves for salads or left to mature for cooked dishes.
The unusual white roots have a sweet and delicate flavour, but the leaves are also exceptional, especially when young. I'm trying it out as part of my winter salad mix
A spring and autumn harvest of baby and medium sized leaves, I'm growing it for salads
Slow to bolt, best sown for spring and summer harvests
high yielding Lamuyo hybrid with good vigour and cover. The elongated fruits are very fleshy with thick walls. Typically 9-10 x 14-16cm in size. Resistant to TMV. Matures from green to intense red
The fruits are square in shape with thick walls, sweet, crisp taste. Fruit dimensions are typically 9-10cm long and 7-9cm in diameter. Matures from dark green to vibrant orange.
A prolific crop of peppers are produced on these attractive, compact bushes. The brightly coloured, tapered fruits are typically 8cm long and are ideal for stuffing, grilling, pickling or eating straight off the plant. Matures to bright yellow colour
Emir F1 is tolerant to low temperatures with a round oval shape with a greyish-green peel colour. It turns orange when it is maturing. These melons are very tasty, fragrant and a sweet variety of melon. Delicious and juicy when eaten on their own
A very early-maturing plant, producing many small, delicious-flavoured fruits of 4 to 5 inches in diameter. An excellent 'designer' American melon, developed at the University of Minnesota around 1948
Clearly ribbed F1 variety with flesh that is very thick and juicy with a sweet and aromatic taste. Deep orange inner flesh
It's useful to grow a couple of varieties of spring cabbage, as conditions vary a lot in spring and one will almost always thrive.
Italian Heirloom variety producing torpedo shaped deep purple to red 6in long onions of mild, sweet excellent flavor. Perfect for salads or pickling. It can either be pulled young as spring onions or allowed to mature for August cropping. Stores well
small waxy tubers are much more versatile than other salad potatoes and literally bursting with flavour - whether you boil, mash, roast or steam them. This exciting new second early variety has been awarded an RHS AGM for its superb garden performance.
I've been very happy with this variety! A sowing in September provides loose leaves in early spring, when red cabbages have finished and traditional savoy probably has too, but it will go to seed later in spring. January and February sowings give lovely small hearts in late spring/early summer, just as the pointy head spring cabbages are finishing and just before the early red cabbages are ready! Tighter spacing will give smaller heads, but are still viable.
With a neat, dwarfing habit and excellent winter hardiness, Pea 'Meteor' is ideal for growing in the garden and exposed areas, as an October - November sown crop. This superb first early, round seeded variety produces an abundance of small, but well filled pods. A good pea for your first harvest, but only about 2 weeks earlier than Oregon Sugarpod and Sugar Snap varieties, sown in January in a greenhouse.
'Elista' is the brown variety of onion and has a stronger flavour. It is great for multiple homemade dishes but is especially delicious in French onion soup! If you cook your own winter casseroles, why not add these to the mix.
A miniature cucumber with medium vigour which fruits prolifically. Fruits are small (best harvested at around 9-11cm), mid-green and exceptionally tasty! Pick one every other day! Plants show good resistance to powdery mildew
Cabbage 'Lodero' is the first clubroot resistant variety of Red Cabbage. Tight, rounded heads of purple-red leaves are produced with good uniformity. This maincrop can be harvested from late autumn as the heads mature, and will store well after cutting.
An early baking potato, with a good yield but not that good a taste, just trying it out as it caught my eye
I've sown this 54 variant for the first time this year and it's been sweeter in summer than any other carrot that I've grown. The carrots have been long and slender too. I left quite a lot of them until November from a March sowing and they were still good quality, with just a little slug damage (which was more my fault).
Great for the UK climate, needs less watering than most, slow to bolt
An improved - for my taste - version of Flashy butter oak, a more compact plant and faster growing, probably one of my top 5 lettuces. A very pretty and vigorous oakleaf lettuce with dark red splashes all over pale green leaves. This lettuce was bred by Wild Garden Seed in Oregon, USA. It is an open-pollinated variety that was introduced in 2005. It is very versatile, can be picked as baby green, baby head, at full maturity or one leaf at the time. The texture is crispy and smooth, with a delic
Vitanoire is an early, firm cooking potato with purple flesh and excellent taste. The tubers are oval with an average yield, tuber number and grading. The variety has exceptional resistance to late blight. It is also suitable for processing French fries.
considered by many to be the highest yielding and best tasting everbearing variety. The easy to care for variety will produce loads of fruit from late spring through the fall. I'm experimenting with it for a super-early succession as a possible alternative to Mara De Bois.
Exceptionally large fruits. Heavy cropping and reliable with excellent, firm textured juicy fruits. I'm going to experiment with Selva for main-crop berry for a harvest through summer.
Best salad onion for summer
On Debbie's plot, acceptable eating apple
Growing in greenhouse from mid winter onwards, then after fruit set moves outside in April
A rare pea that's not available commercially, grows to around three metres if allowed with huge, white flowers that the bees adore. Followed by large pods of the sweetest and tastiest peas imaginable apparently
Incredibly prolific, especially good grown early, all female doesn't need to be pollinated, so no need for hand pollination of insects
Highly recommended to me, not tried it yet
Sweet and crunchy arrow head type. Highly recommended to me, not that great in early spring, trying again later in season
Compact bush variety, trying this for early and late harvests from containers, I'm trialling this for growing in the greenhouse, early and late
This modern heirloom tomato couldn’t have been more aptly named. The lemon yellow fruit is produced in astonishing profusion on massive trusses that hang like huge bunches of grapes. Barry’s Crazy Cherry was developed by breeder Brad Gate of Wild Boar Farm. Their flavour is mild and sweet with little to no acidity, so are loved by kids. Just grab a truss and start snacking.
Medium sized onion with pink tinge and a superb flavour. Grows to a good size. Will keep well in storage.
Redskin F1 Pepper Seeds are ideal for planting in containers on the patio. They produce dwarf plants which produces numerous medium size fruits which are slightly pointed, of bright green colour turning to red.
We grow our climbing beans earlier and a little later than others. Our early crop goes into the polytunnel, wrapped in fleece, the outdoor ones go out later, when all rusk of frost has definitely passed. In a polytunnel - once it's warm enough beans go from planting to harvesting in a month, so no need to plant them too early!
Golden, sweet fruit, considered the "must have" yellow variety. Autumn cropping primocane, Aug into Oct. It has slightly thorny canes, but otherwise the plant is tough and vigorous.
a stunning glossy dark red variety producing a large head of loose rosettes consisting of broad, slightly oval leaves with frizzed edges. The variety covers a wide flavour palette with the centre of a rosette having a tender, almost sweet taste, while the outer leaves are more savoury. Can be grown from spring to early winter with its thick leaves and slow bolting habit
produces sweet and tasty berries in July and again in September, compact variety ideal for containers
late season Blueberry produces heavy crops of large, dark blue berries with a lovely sweet flavour. Blueberry 'Goldtraube 71' is a reliable, self fertile variety that will consistently bear good crops each August
A new onion for me this year, meant to be a good keeper, recommended by Nigel form the muddy boots channel. Vento F1 has a lovely sweet flavour and the bulbs will keep through till February if stored cool and dry.
Incredibly prolific, especially good grown early, all female doesn't need to be pollinated, so no need for hand pollination of insects